GC-100 Problems

I am working in Microsoft Research for an investigative project which may or may not use Global Cache products.

I just unpacked my GC-100 that I purchased on Feb 2 from www.Smarthome.com. I find that it while iHelp can 'see' the unit (the MAC address is correct!), the unit cannot be configured. All attempts to connect with the command ip address show on the iHelp screen (192.168.1.70) fails. More over if I 'ping' 192.168.1.70 that fails too.

By the way, I have two iTach units on the same network that work perfectly - they are spotted by the iHelp utility and I can configure them by right clicking and selecting 'configure'. Any advice would be welcome.

22 comments

0

Josh Sherman
February 28, 2012 17:11

It sounds likely that you are having a subnet related issue. When communicating over the network, any network device that needs to communicate will need to be set up with the same first three IP address values as each other. In this case, this means that you computer needs to be assigned to the 192.168.1.## subnet. Once it is, your units can be configured with an IP address within your normal network segment (whatever subnet your computer currently resides in), and everything can be put back to normal. Once assigned in your normal network segment, your units should communicate properly with other devices in your network and will behave similarly to the iTach units you have.

In cases like this, try connecting to the unit directly with a crossover Ethernet cable (T568A ->T568B). In this configuration, you will need to manually apply an IP address to the computer within the same subnet as the unit (192.168.1.##). If you are unable to communicate with the unit at the default IP address of 192.168.1.70, then default your unit and try again. The process for defaulting the unit is linked below.

I bought two GC-100-12. Both have firmware version 2.0.8-12r2. I know the firmware is old but for what I need to do this firmware is fine. Mind that main network is 192.168.0.XX. So I followed what what you described here, changed the default IP for my first device from 192.168.1.70 to 192.168.0.70 and all worked fine. Then I tried the same steps for my second device. I was able to access it via IP 192.168.1.70. But as soon as I'd change it to any other IP, then I wasn't able to access it anymore. I changed it to 192.168.0.71 and nothing... I then reset it to default and tried different IPs for the sake of it but, again, as soon as I changed the IP to something different from 102.168.1.70, then the device would become inaccessible. What's going on here?

Btw, for "Gateway Address" I put the IP of my router that does the DHCP for my network. Again, I got one of my GC-100-12 to work. I have no clue why the same steps are not working for my other GC-100-12. I actually bough 2 other more (I'll have a total of 4) to control my entire house. So I hope you won't tell me that I can't have more than one GC-100-12 working on the same network. They should work as long as they have different IPs. Please help me out here.

If you have a GC-100-12 with firmware version 2.0.8-12r2 like I do, here is the deal. DON'T USE GOOGLE CHROME TO SET IT UP! I wasted several hours trying to set it up using Google Chrome, and not matter what, GC-100-12 would never accept any of my changes via Chrome. Then, after I was about to give up, I tried Internet Explorer (I used IE9) and it worked!!! I don't use IE for anything!!! So it never came to my mind that I should try to set my GC-100-12 using IE. lmao.

I've searched for hours online and nobody had posted anything about setting up GC-100-12 using IE. So here doing my share to help someone out there.

I've been reading all this posts and I understand the default IP address for the GC 100-12 is 192.168.1.70, however I am using an Apple router where it uses 10.0.1.xx. what can I do in this case? I have tried discovering the unit using iHelp, but it doesn't work.

In order to communicate with a GC-100 which is at the default IP address, you will need to address a PC or Mac into the same IP subnet (192.168.1.##). This will allow you to configure the unit to a new IP address within the 10.0.1.## subnet, at which point you can change your PC or Mac back to its original configuration. Once finished, everything on your network will be able to communicate with the unit as long as there are no IP address conflicts.

I am having a similar issue, followed the steps to change the IP of the GC100 to a 10.0.1.70 but iHelp was not able to discover the unit (Although i could access the setup page via internet explorer using the IP address directly).

So I reset the unit once more, connected it directly to a pc via network cable, i was able to access it directly using 192.168.1.70 (due to reset) but even without changing anything iHelp was not able to see the unit. What would be the next step ?

The next step is to set the unit to a static address inside your normal network subnet. The main reason why you wouldn't see the discovery beacon is that your unit's firmware is likely not fully up to date. The firmware version of your unit can be found on the network configuration page, and the current version is 3.2. If you would like to upgrade your unit, it would require a $35 service charge and a trip back to our facilities. As long as your control software does not require a certain firmware version, this upgrade will not be necessary.

I have set up the unit static ip to 10.0.1.70 (and also tried 10.0.1.69 out of curiosity to see if it changed something) with the same results, ie i can connect to it via internet explorer but the beacon is not received. My unit has indeed a lower version 2.0.8-12r2 but surely this must have been working at some point, the ipv4 and UDP protocols have not changed yet. I am using the iHelp version downloadable on your website and just assumed it would work with ay firmware versions ?

Technically, the discovery beacon was added in version 3.0, so this is not yet a feature of the firmware your unit has. I recommend checking with your software provider to make sure that the version that you have won't cause a problem, and if it does, we can move forward on an RMA to get your unit upgraded.

Ok thank you for the feedback. I guess this is good to know that owners of global cache with firmware prior to 3.0 will not have that feature and therefore the unit will also not be discovered by your iHelp application. given that the unit has a serial input, is there a way to perform the update ourselves (I have a usb to serial adapter) ? Thank you.

I am using a GC-100-12 with firmware version 2.0.8-12r2. I understand that for this FW version it is only posible to configure it using IE. I tried to configure it using IE10 with a cross over cable connected directly to my PC. I am able to connecto to the default port 192.168.1.70, but am not able to assign a different IP. Also it´s not clear for me which Gateway address to fill in as by default it is set to 192.168.1.70.

I just found a wild solution. I have the GC100 (multiple) with firmware 2.0.8-12r2. None would work setting up with any PC browser I used: Chrome, Opera or IE10.

Here is the solution: I used an ipad and the Atomic Web Browser App. You can identify this app's browser as nearly any browser. I identified it as IE8, and completed the changes to the GC100 as described in the manual. This worked and made the GC100 identifiable to any browser (Chrome, Opera and IE10) at the new IP address. Also make sure to delete the little "?" box thingy at the end of the address when making the changes. Hope this helps.

I've got an old 2.0.8-12r2 firmware as well and this seems causing lots of problems with Roomie Remote. Nonetheless I live in Italy, and so the shipping costs for the unit to be fw upgraded could be not reasonable.

Would it be possible for you to only send me the "U5" 24LC256 Serial Electrically Erasable PROM (that's quite cheap, in the order of less than a dollar) with the new firmware onboard? I could swap it in a snap...

I have a GC-100-12 with firmware 3.2-12. I use it with the iRule app on an iPad. I'm having trouble maintaining a connection to the unit. iRule, of course, says it's the GC-100, but I've changed it out with another (same firmware), same problem. The iPad seems to test fine, and using the Speedtest.net app, network speeds are fine. When the connection to the GC-100 is lost, internet browsing is still possible, so I'm not thinking its a Wifi issue. Any thoughts on how to find this?

I have been struggling with GC100 Settings for years, everytime i need to change settings i had to try and get an old win98 laptop working as it was the only pc i had that would change the settings, I have tried nearly every browser out there with no luck. did the F12 thing worked fine!!!!!!